St. Lucia Simply Beautiful

September 13, 2006

Edward Harris at Large!!!

THE ALLIANCE FOR CHANGE WAS A REAL CHALLENGE TO THE TWO MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE GUYANA ELECTIONS 2006

It is wonderful to be back in St. Lucia after an absence of two months. I am very pleased to update my readers on my mission to Guyana where I was a part of the Alliance For Change – 2006 Elections Campaign Team.

On the previous occasion when I was involved in a political campaign on behalf of the Guyana Democratic Party (GDP) I walked away without a seat but this time, it was different as in the Alliance For Change changed the course of history that for the first time a political party was able to secure five seats in the Parliament and twenty one seats across the Democratic Councils of the ten Regions of Guyana, and in the instance of Region 4 with the largest amount of voters, the AFC with 3 seats holds the balance of power, a situation which it had hoped to achieve in the National Assembly.

The AFC in just nine months of its existence decided to participate in the 2006 General Elections of Guyana with less than one month to campaign. The AFC took Guyana by storm and created such an impact on the electorate that the two major parties, the People’s Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C) and the People’s National Congress / Reform – One Guyana (PNC/R) were so seriously challenged that they were forced to resort to the old race politics.

The theme of the AFC was “Don’t Vote Race, Vote Change!” which resonated with the voters until in the final stages of the campaign, when the PPP/C and the PNC/R – One Guyana unleashed their artillery to demolish the gains of the AFC. Apart from subtle threats to their former supporters and intensifying their house to house campaign, preaching to the people that the AFC will split the vote and more importantly the PPP/C was telling their supporters that a vote for the AFC is a vote for the PNC/R while the latter was maintaining a line that their supporters must not split the vote. It all boiled down to a return to racial voting.

The principal objective of the AFC was to hold the balance of power in parliament in the first instance. This was almost realized when due to the intense pressure by the PPP/C and PNC/R – One Guyana in the run up to the elections, the actual results produced a reversal of the trend in our polls where the majority of East Indians voted for the PPP/C and the Blacks for the PNC/R – One Guyana. The racial overtones got so bad that the PPP/C was requested by the Media Monitoring Committee to withdraw their “great pretender advertisement” which highlighted the burning down of certain parts of Georgetown and aligning Mr. Raphael Trotman with that state of affairs as it was alleged that it was the PNC/R supporters that were involved in the hooliganism that resulted while he was still an Executive of that Party. That was very unfair and if there was one chilling effect, it was that advertisement and the Indian population reverted to their safety net in the protective arms of the PPP/C. Did we beg the situation that pertains today when for the past several days, the news headlines are dominated by a spate of fires.

Unlike previous elections, this time however, things were very different and the checks and balances were in place theoretically but varied somewhat in application. In spite of the problems that arose on Election Day, the observers were loud in their praises for GECOM and the Guyanese people who were finally able to participate in an election free of violent incidents. It must be noted that no observer team could have covered all the polling stations across the country. Sir John Compton, former Prime Minister of Saint Lucia led the Commonwealth Observer Team to Guyana for the 2006 General Elections.

In spite of the reports of the international observers, the rumours about Election Day activities paint a different picture. Was it free and fair? Yes, it could be deemed as free since there was no violent incident but when it comes to being fair, that’s another matter. Let the officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) explain why the Presiding Officers locked out Polling Agents from polling places, demanding letters certifying their appointment in spite they had identification cards which were provided by GECOM? After the morning fiasco the said situation developed at the close of poll with the Counting Agents, they were again asked for letters and this was not an isolated matter, it happened across the country.

The latest position is that GECOM infrastructure is no more, having been gutted by fire
and all the records and computers destroyed. While the officials of GECOM claimed to have the computer records in a safe place, the votes unaccounted for in Region 10 will never be able to be verified. The AFC humiliated the PPP/C in Region 10, especially in the Kwakwani area where AFC did better than all other parties. I have a feeling that had all the boxes been accounted for the results in Region 10 would have been different, putting AFC in second place.

The final count of parliamentary seats is PPP/C 36, PNC/R-One Guyana 22, AFC 5, GAP/ROAR 1 and TUF 1. You are invited to visit www.gecom.org.gy and find out about elections in Guyana while staying on top of developments by visiting the daily newspapers websites, www.guyanachronicle.com www.kaieteurnews.com www.stabroeknews.com

I continue to take care of my broken leg and hope to be out of the cast within a few days so that I can move around to catch up on the St. Lucia election campaign. Only if the political conditions could be in Guyana as there are here in St. Lucia – what a country it would be? I pray that St. Lucians will cherish their democratic freedoms and exercise their vote on Elections’ Day.

With the spate of fires at key institutions, the future of Guyana is not exciting, especially at this juncture. We will have to wait and see how things shape up. Remember always that God is in charge, keep the faith.

Edward A. Harris

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